The Slayer of The Rings
by ambidorkstrous
Summary: After the destruction of Sunnydale and her lover Spike, Buffy finds a ring he had hidden for her that brings him back whenever she places it on her finger. Let me know what you guys think!
1. Default Chapter

UH.I dunno exactly what I'm supposed to be saying, but I guess it is that all or most of the characters used in my story are fictional characters of the writers and creators of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and are in no way owned by me or have anything to do with me, except for the fact that they are in my story! Thanks to everyone for reading this! ~*~Rinn~*~  
  
By the way, this story begins right after the events of the SERIES finale, after Sunnydale is destroyed!  
  
The yellow school bus bounced slightly as it made it's way through the moonlight covered roads of California. A small group of people sat inside, most being rocked to sleep by the bouncing bus, or just sleeping because they were exhausted from the huge battle that occurred earlier that day. The only two people awake inside the bus were Buffy Summers, and her former watcher, Rupert Giles who was driving the bus. Buffy couldn't get to sleep no matter how hard she tried, because all she could think about was Spike and how he spontaneously combusted right in front of her eyes. She couldn't fathom how something like that could've happened. What she also couldn't believe, was that he didn't believe that she meant it when she told him she loved him. She said it with her heart and soul, and told him the truth, but for some strange reason he didn't believe her.  
  
"Awake Buffy?" Giles asked sarcastically since he already knew the answer to his question. "Yea. After all that happened today, I don't think I'll be able to sleep for quite a while." "I can completely understand that." Giles chuckled. "Why do you think I chose to drive the bus? I knew I'd be awake anyways and I needed something to occupy my mind." "Darn. Now's the time I wish I had gotten my license when I had the chance!" They both laughed. "God, I hate being here when I know Anya and countless others aren't. It just eats at me. I can't believe she's gone." Tears welled up in Buffy's eyes as her thoughts went back and forth from Spike's death to Anya's. "I know how you feel Buffy," he said as he glanced back at Zander, sleeping peacefully in his seat. "I have no idea how Zander's taking it so well. They were almost married for goodness sakes. How is he able to sleep, while we're not?" Giles asked rhetorically. "I don't know, but I'm exhausted, so I'm gonna at least attempt to get in a little sleep before we get to Cleveland. Goodnight Giles." "Goodnight Buffy. Try to get some sleep." He advised her in his usual fatherly way.  
  
The next morning, Buffy and the gang awoke to find themselves stopped at a rest stop somewhere between California and Las Vegas.  
  
"Buffy, you're up! Ok, which one do you want? Cap'n Crunch or Froot Loops? Seeing as you're the last one up, well aside from Giles anyways," Buffy looked over to see an exhausted looking Giles sleeping on the steering wheel. "you get the last available cereal!" Dawn held out two mini-cereal boxes. "I'll go for the Froot Loops. They give justice to the term 'sugary goodness', which is exactly what I need right now!" Dawn threw her the box and then sat down on the bus seat across from her. The bus had become a sort of home for them overnight. In the area behind the last seats, and in the aisle that separated the two rows of seats, Xander had set up a bunch of opened sleeping bags to create a soft floor for anyone to sleep on. Then, there were pillows and blankets strewn all over the place that everyone had used the night before. Buffy plopped down onto the poofy sleeping bag floor and opened her Froot Loops.  
  
"Oh damn. No milk." She heard Faith say from the back. "Well, you can't always have your way Faith. Especially after you've just left a completely destroyed city, which I don't think still has a fully operated grocery store." Wood said to her, trying to make a joke out of the situation. Faith of course laughed at her new honey's attempt to make her laugh.  
  
"Andrew, I'll trade you for the Cookie Crisp. Come on! Honeycombs are way better, so why don't you want them?" Zander begged Andrew for a cereal exchange. "Zander, shouldn't you be looking for the Cap'n Crunch? I mean, he is a pirate.well.kinda.." Andrew retorted. "Oh, so we're back to the eye patch jokes now are we? I see how it is." Zander said back to him sarcastically, starting a chain of constant bickering that was sure to go on for hours.  
  
"Hey Will, want some of my Cheerios? I know they're your favorite." Kennedy said as she offered cereal to her girlfriend. "No, it's ok. Thanks anyway though. I'm just not that hungry." Willow replied.  
  
"So, how ya holding up?" Dawn asked her older sister. "I don't know. I guess not too bad. But it still doesn't all seem real to me yet. When it hits me, I'm sure I won't be as ok as I am now." Buffy answered.  
  
"Wha-, hah-, who-!?!" Giles jumped up out of his peaceful slumber. The Scoobies all laughed.  
  
"Giles, are you ok?" Willow asked him. "What? Oh, yes Willow, I'm fine thanks. Just a bad dream I guess."  
  
As the next few days went by, they knew that they were growing nearer to Cleveland, and their happy moods were slowly decreasing.  
  
"Woo Hoo. We're approaching another Hellmouth, and I can already feel the evil calling from hundreds of miles away." Faith told the crew. "Don't you feel that B? It's gotta be some sorta slayer intuition or something, because I can feel this thing. So much evil and terror. I can feel it just as much as I can feel this drink in my hand." " Wow. Now that you mention it, this force is really strong. The evil.I can feel it." She shivered. How she wished she could be held by Spike right at that very moment. It always felt good to be held in his arms, and right now it was just what she needed. "Well Buffy, I hope you're feeling strong enough to get in there and fight whatever this evil is. It can't be as bad as the First or anything we just came from." Giles said, snapping her back to reality. Spike was never coming back. He couldn't. How was it possible? Tears welled in her eyes. "Buffy? Are you ok?" Giles asked her. "Huh? Oh, yea. Sorry, something in my eye." She lied, putting her fingers to her eye pretending to figure out what was in there. "Well, we're stopping for lunch soon. Is Taco Bell ok for everyone? Wow, I can't believe I'm eating such American filth." The British inside of him was beginning to peek out from behind his glasses. "Hey! Anything that involves a Chihuahua, a gordita, and a bunch of mild sauce is NOT American filth! Don't diss the foods of my homeland!" Zander fought back.  
  
Two days later, they were only a few miles outside of Cleveland and the mood had grown tense on the bus. Everyone was worried that they would lose yet another one, or many of their group, or even die themselves. They had stopped for the night at an actual hotel, rather than a rest stop, because they were pretty much where they were supposed to be, and could stay in the hotel for longer than just one night. The rooms were split up, and 2 people shared each room. Wood & Faith, Buffy & Dawn, Zander & Andrew, Willow & Kennedy, all shared rooms, and Giles slept on the couch in Zander & Andrew's room. Having an actual shower for the first time since they had left Sunnydale a week earlier was Buffy's favorite part of staying in the hotel. She finally had the chance to wash all of the dried blood and dirt off of her body. As she got undressed for her shower, she folded her dirty, ripped jeans and something fell out of one of the pockets. She reached down to retrieve the shiny gold object from the floor, and saw that gold wasn't the only beautiful part of what she had found. It was a ring, covered in diamonds. There was a 1.5 carat diamond in the center above part of the gold, and many small diamonds creating a strip around the base of the gold ring. In the inside, it was engraved, "To Buffy: My love forever, Love William". How did this get into her pocket? That was the question that bugged her the most. The conclusion she came to was that he must have slipped it into there before he died. She cried when she saw it, and couldn't make herself put it on, because she couldn't bear to think of him being gone forever, and any reminder of him made her think of that.  
  
"Wow, who would've thought to build a bank, over a Hellmouth?" Zander said four hours later as he watched people and demons run from the Suntrust bank that was now bursting into flames. "Darn, all that money. Maybe we can save some of it!" He ran to the safe in the bank trying to salvage whatever was left. "That was fast. I mean, it took us longer to kill the Mayor." Willow said, causing Faith to flinch at the thought of the Mayor, since he was almost like a father to her. "And there were more fatalities." She said in a kind of cheery way, seeing as not even half as many people died today as they did before. "Oh yea! Who's up for dinner?" Zander said, pulling out a huge bag filled with cash he had stolen from the now, burned to the ground bank. They all turned and looked at him. "Zander!" The whole group exclaimed as he gave them a smirk, and they all ran into the remains of the bank to get whatever money they could salvage.  
  
Later that night, they returned to the hotel and to their rooms. Buffy again took out the ring and looked at it's beauty. It was entrancing to her. She looked at it and was almost taken to another world. But each time she saw it, she cried and became more drawn to it. She wanted to wear it, but was too afraid of what would happen if she did. She didn't want the constant reminder that Spike was gone, but the power of the ring was beginning to overcome her. She put it on and immediately felt different. She felt like something was rushing in her blood that was making her stronger. She fell to the bathroom floor on her knees and was shaking. Then she passed out.  
  
"Buffy? Buffy? Wake up pet. Please wake up." Buffy heard the familiar voice of the person kneeling over her. "No, it couldn't be." She thought to herself. "Could it?" She opened her eyes to see Spike's pale face with an expression of worry washed over it. "Love? Can you see me? Buffy?" He asked her. "Spike? Is it you? Is it really you?" She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. "Yes love. It's me. Calm down or you're going to pass out again pet." He said to her as he wiped her forehead with a damp washcloth. "SPIKE?!?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Dawn shouted as she opened the bathroom door to see what was going on, but instead discovered Spike kneeling over her sister's body. "Hullo bit. I have NO bloody idea what I'm doing here. The last thing I remember was hearing Buffy tell me that she loved me, and watching Sunnydale collapse. Now I'm here and I have no idea why. I just opened my eyes and I was standing over there." He pointed towards the wall. Buffy sat up slowly and put her hand on the large bump that had begun to form after she fell to the floor. She became dizzy and swayed a little from side to side. "Buffy." Spike said as he put his arms around her and picked her up. "You need to lay down on something that's not solid as a rock, and tile falls under that category." He carried her to her bed and laid her down gently. "Do you want me to get you anything? Maybe water would be good. I should get you some water. Yes, that's what I should do." Spike said, showing his concern and worry for Buffy. He went to the mini-bar and got out a bottle of cold water. He then brought it to her and helped her drink it slowly so she wouldn't choke. "Spike, what's going on? Why did I pass out? Oh, and most importantly, WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD?" She said, angered by how much she was confused about the whole situation. She had loved him, but then he was taken away from her. Her heart had broken because she had believed him to be dead. "Well, first love, I don't know what's going on. Second, I think the first answer gives you the answer to the second question. And third, I have no idea why I'm not dead Buffy. What was the last thing you remember doing? That may answer some of your bloody questions." "All I know is that when I put on this ring," she lifted her hand to show Dawn and Spike, "I felt a surge of power. I suddenly felt really strong, but then I felt the power being grabbed out of me and I fell to the floor, and that's when I must've passed out." She paused. "Wait a minute. Maybe this is all from the ring." They all looked at it. "Everything started the second I put it on." She took it off of her finger and Spike disappeared. "Where did he go?!? Spike? Where are you?" Buffy said, frightened she lost him yet again. Her eyes began to well up with tears, but then she put the ring back on and he reappeared. "Well, that was an unpleasant experience." He said as he sat down on the edge of her bed. "One second I was in here, and the next I was in some empty room with all white walls. Oh, and there also was this really annoying noise that bugged the bloody hell out of me." " I guess it's whenever I put on the ring, that you somehow appear, and when I take it off, you disappear." Buffy said as she realized what was going on. She couldn't take it anymore. She needed to tell him how she really felt. "Dawn, can you go and get some sodas and snacks from the machines down the hall please?" Buffy told her sister who obviously realized she wasn't wanted in the room when she replied with a smile, "Sure. I'll make sure to stop to get some ice while I'm at it." She got up and left the room.  
  
"Spike, I need to talk to you. I can't take it anymore, holding all of this in. It's too hard trying not to love you and to pull of this façade for all of my friends trying to make them believe that I don't love you. Why did you say you didn't believe me? I need to know so my mind can stop racing with reasons that I just can't fathom." By now she already had tears streaming down her face. Spike moved closer to her and put his arms around her. "Buffy, at the time I didn't know how to believe you. I don't know, I guess while I was spontaneously combusting I couldn't exactly think straight. I do love you Buffy, more than you will ever know, and if you truly love me, then.well.." He was cut off when she put her lips against his and they engaged in a passionate kiss which started out small and became bigger and bigger. Within minutes, clothes were flying across the room as Buffy and Spike began to do, well.more than just kissing. Dawn, knowing her sister wanted some quality time with Spike, asked Willow and Kennedy if she could room with them for the night. When asked why, all that Dawn said was that Buffy needed some time alone to think about the events of the past two weeks or so. Willow agreed of course to letting Dawn sleep in her room, and Spike and Buffy got their night alone.  
  
The next morning, Buffy woke up in Spike's arms, where she had been longing to be for two weeks. It may not sound like a long time, but to her it seemed like a lifetime. She pulled herself closer to him and felt his smooth, cool skin on hers. He was still sleeping, being a vampire he was accustomed to sleeping during the day. Then he moved a little bit, and she could tell he was awake. "I love you Buffy." He told her as he kissed her forehead. "Same to you." She laughed, being happy that she was with him and had a second chance to be with him. "So, I see that you found the ring I gave you. Like it?" "Like it? I love it! This ring will NEVER leave my finger, as long as I am alive. Besides, if it did, I wouldn't have you anymore, so why would I do a stupid thing like taking off the ring?" "It's been in my family for generations. Before I turned, my mother gave me this ring and said to give it to the woman I love. I had hid it in a small box that I placed somewhere in the walls of my house. After I became a vampire, I completely forgot about it, and I'm happy I did, or I would've sold it for cash or other..ahem.services." Buffy gave him a look of disgust. "What? I was a horny vampire. You can't blame me. The soul- less usually are." She laughed at his words. "So when I had my soul back, I knew I had to give this ring to you. I returned to my old house, which was somehow still standing, and I found it to bring to you." "And I'm happy you did, because if you didn't, I may not be here with you right now after one of the most amazing nights of my life." She couldn't bear to think of not being with him a second longer. 


	2. Chapter Two

Dawn woke up in Willow's room, and her mind suddenly went to Buffy and Spike. Oh my gosh.I hope everything's ok. I should go back and check on Buffy. Why did I leave her alone in there? She got up, thanked Willow and ran out the door back to her room. She knocked on the door and called for her sister, who at the moment was in the shower, while Spike was just towel- drying his hair from his shower.  
  
"Buffy? Buffy? Are you in there? Are you ok?" With no reply, Dawn started knocking harder, until Spike opened the door. "Hullo bit." He called her by the nickname he had given to her. She pushed the door open, came into the room, and bolted it shut. She couldn't risk them finding Spike if Buffy didn't want them to. "And exactly where have you been all night?" He asked her.  
  
"You better shape up.doo doo doo.cause I need a man.." They heard Buffy singing Grease tunes from the shower and laughed.  
  
"Wow. She's singing in the shower? She hasn't done that since, well, Riley was around." Dawn said, noticing that her sister must obviously be happy. Spike flinched at the mention of the man who had placed a chip in his head and had once loved his beloved slayer. "Well bit, I'm sure you'll be happy to know that she's with me now. No more of those bloody military blokes." "Wait. Are you telling me that you, and Buffy.uh.you know.did it?" "Not that it's any of your business, but yes bit." Dawn was about to burst with excitement. She'd always liked Spike the best out of all of her sister's boyfriends and she had wanted them to hook up forever. "So, you guys are what? A couple now?" "Yes bit. And I'll let you in on a little secret, if you promise not to tell." "Ok. I won't! Spill!" After Dawn agreed not to tell Buffy, Spike whispered his secret into her ear. "Oh my gosh! Are you serious?" He nodded. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! This is great!" She began to jump around the room from how excited she was. "SHHHHH!!! Bit, can I have some bloody peace?" He said motioning his eyes towards the bathroom to hint that Buffy was out of her shower. "Oh! Buffy! Hi!" Dawn said surprised. "Dawnnie, what is wrong with you? Overdose on the Red Bull?" Buffy teased her sister with a grin. "Yep. You caught me." Dawn laughed. "No, I was just excited that you and Spike are FINALLY together!" "Oh." Buffy smiled at Spike, as he did to her. "That." She laughed. "Well, at the moment we're gonna keep that a secret. You didn't tell anyone he was here did you?" Buffy asked her frantically, noticing that her friends could already know of Spike's presence. "No Buffy don't worry, I didn't say a word. I just said you wanted some alone time. Besides, Spike's the one who saved all of our butts, so why would anyone care if he was back?" Dawn has a point. Buffy thought to herself as she realized that Spike was the one who saved them all, and she had nothing to be afraid of by saying that they were together. Besides, she loved him and to her that was all that mattered. "Let me get dressed and we can go have breakfast with everyone. I'm sure Giles'll be knocking on the door any minute now." Just as she said that, she heard a knock on her door. She opened it and sure enough, it was Giles.  
  
"Good morning Buffy." He said with a smile. "Same to you Giles. Breakfast right?' She replied. "Yes. Buffy, you look.well.different. Did you change your makeup or something? You look positively stunning. Almost like you have a glow." He said in awe of how much she was glowing because of Spike's love. She smiled at him. "Thanks Giles. You'll find out why I'm so happy later at breakfast. I have an announcement to make then, so I guess you'll just have to wait!" She told him and then waved goodbye. "See you in twenty minutes!" She shut the door and turned toward Spike and Dawn. Spike was fixing his peroxide blonde locks in the mirror and Dawn was looking through her small suitcase for new clothes to wear and change to do her laundry. "Anyone have a few quarters to spare? I don't really feel like wearing dirty underwear today." She directed towards the other two people in the room. Spike dug into both of his pockets searching for change and retrieved four quarters. "Here bit." He tossed them to her. Buffy looked at them and saw what a happy family they could make. That was something she had yearned for forever, and she felt that it was finally coming together.  
  
As they headed down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, Buffy and Spike held hands as Dawn walked ahead of them. "Spike, I'm nervous." Buffy told him her feelings about telling her friends about them. "Don't worry love. I'll be right here by your side the whole time. You don't even need to let go of my hand if you don't want to."  
  
As they walked into the restaurant, all of their friends looked over at them and their jaws dropped. "Spike?" Half of them said as the others just gawked. "Yep it's me. In the flesh. Well, sort of." "How are you, like, alive?" Willow asked in a state of shock. "Well, we've been trying to figure that out too since last night. It kind of all revolves around this ring." He held up Buffy's hand as the ring reflected sunlight onto him. "Oh my gosh." Buffy said. "What is it love?" He replied. "Spike.you're in the sunlight, and you aren't bursting into flames!" Buffy told him. "What?!?!" He looked at the sunlight that was all around him, which he didn't notice before, and realized that he could go into the sun without bursting into flames! "Bloody hell! I'm human!" 


	3. Chapter Three

Hey all! Just wanted to say that in chapter two when I said something about how Spike fixed his hair in the mirror, I wasn't really thinking about how he was a vampire who couldn't see his reflection. So please disregard that and enjoy chapter three! And sorry if this chapter's kinda short. I may be making them short so I can publish them faster for ya'll! Also, I'd like to thank all of ya'll for your reviews! They've been really helpful and I hope you like what I'm doing with the story! I have a great idea which will be a huge surprise for all of you guys and I hope you'll like it! More later! OOO! And sorry bout the wrong Xander spelling! I don't wanna go through all of this and change it, but next chapter I PROMISE it will be revised! And I will be separating lines after each person speaks in the next chapter. Sorry bout that too! I hope ya'll will forgive me! ~*~Rinn~*~  
  
Spike moved his hands into the stream of sunlight coming through the glass windows of the hotel restaurant. "Does anyone have a mirror?" He asked wanting to see his reflection to prove that he was really human. Willow handed him the compact from her purse and he opened it and saw himself for the first time in decades. "Wow. I'm one sexy bugger ain't I?" He chuckled. "I thought you looked a little less pale this morning." Dawn said to him and looked around the table at the shocked faces looking up at Spike in disbelief that he was human, let alone that he was alive.  
  
"There's got to be some prophecy about this somewhere." Giles said flipping through one of his books and cleaning his glasses. "Spike, how did you uh, reappear?" he said in an inquisitive tone. "Well, Buffy and I discovered that when she puts the ring I gave her on her finger, I appear, but when she removes it, I disappear to some white room somewhere. Oh, and a side-note. If that ring is taken off of her finger and I'm stuck in that G-d awful room again with that annoying noise, when I'm back, whoever took that ring will be really sorry." "Oh." Giles said. "Alright then." He adjusted his glasses and continued flipping through the book. Willow and Kennedy were sitting on the couch, Zander and Andrew were sitting on Zander's bed, Buffy was sitting on Andrew's bed, Giles was at the desk researching and Spike was pacing around by Giles. Faith and Wood had chosen to go back to their room for a while, so they weren't there. Andrew started poking Spike's arm. "Could you bloody stop that? It's beginning to really bug me." Spike glared at Andrew. "Oh. Sorry Spike. I just wanted to see if you were any different now that you were human. Please don't kill me!" Andrew backed off and cringed. "All I'm gonna say is you better sleep with your eyes open." Spike taunted. "Honey, don't even joke about that. Even though he's annoying as hell and tried to kill me in the past, well, Andrew's not a bad asset to our team. Plus, you wouldn't wanna get your new human teeth all dirty now would you?" Buffy joked. "BUFFY!" Andrew shouted at her and they all laughed. "Quiet please." Giles told them. "I think I found something." He focused closer on the book and everyone fell silent, intent on learning what he found. "Well, it says here that a vampire, once dead, will rise again but as a human. It also says that when he rises as a human, that he will have to defeat another demon-turned-human or human-turned-demon before he can live without depending on the ring." They all continued to be silent as a long pause occurred. "So, what is it?" Spike asked. "What is what?" Giles answered. "The 'Big Bad' I have to kill?" "It doesn't say. Only that you will have to defeat it, and that it will be very strong and powerful." He paused and overlooked the page again. "Wait a second. It also gives an approximate time of your battle. The book says it will take place sometime between next Wednesday night and next Thursday morning." "Well that helps. We can just all assemble an army and help him kill it." Buffy said, already prepared to fight anything that came between her and Spike's future together. "That's just it." Giles said. "He has to kill it himself, and only himself. Then, and only then, may he live without the power of the ring." "Well then I guess we better get you prepared." Buffy told Spike.  
  
Two days had gone by and it was already Friday evening. There were five days left until the big battle and as it got closer, Buffy became more and more nervous about losing Spike again. She was training him to the best of her abilities and even got Willow to teach him a few spells. Even though he wasn't a witch or a warlock, the spells still gave a small effect. He would need to become more powerful to do spells even close to Willow's level. She had Zander and Andrew making weapons for Spike to use, and Faith was helping him train when Buffy was too tired to. They had all banded together to help because they all owed Buffy their lives, and if this were what she wanted them to do, they'd do it no questions asked.  
  
Another two days went by and it was already Sunday night. Buffy and the gang were exhausted from their all-nighters preparing Spike for Wednesday. They decided to stop early that night so everyone could have energy for the next two days. Spike went back to Buffy's room after he had been training with Faith and when he opened the door, he heard a chorus of "SHHHHH"'s from Dawn. She pointed to Buffy's bed where she was sleeping like a baby. He knew she had looked exhausted earlier that day, but he hadn't realized she was that tired. He lay down next to her on the bed and wrapped his arms around her. He'd do anything to be with her, and this battle would prove that. Then he shut his eyes and went to sleep.  
  
It was very early Monday morning, and Spike awoke with a jolt. He woke up in a panic and was clammy and covered in sweat. He almost couldn't breathe. Buffy woke up too since she felt him moving on the bed. "Spike, are you ok?" She asked him, worrying that something was wrong. "Yes love. Just a bad dream is all. Go back to sleep. Don't worry about me." He put his hands through her hair, kissed her, and tried to go back to sleep. He wasn't a vampire anymore and he knew he needed his strength, but he just couldn't keep his eyes closed after his nightmare. In it, he saw Buffy laying dead on the ground, covered in blood, and above her, he was standing holding a knife covered in her blood. He had killed her in his nightmare. 


	4. Chapter Four

Hey everyone! You should all be looking foreword to my changes I'm making just for you! Hehe.like, the change from Zander to Xander and making smaller paragraphs! I listen to ya'lls opinions and criticisms, so please let me know what you think! After all, I am writing this for you! Enjoy! ~*~Rinn~*~  
  
"Spike? Earth to Spike. You there?" Buffy asked him.  
  
"Wh-what?" He said, realizing that he was in the middle of a training session. His mind kept visiting his nightmare and replaying it over and over again. How could he focus on anything else when he kept seeing himself kill Buffy?  
  
"Spike, you really need to stay focused. The battle's tomorrow, and I don't want to lose you again. I can't lose you again."  
  
"I know Buffy. I'm sorry I haven't been able to really focus, but I think I've got this all down. I mean, how powerful can this thing be?"  
  
"I don't know Spike, but it shouldn't matter. However powerful it is, you need to be more. You can't lose. Don't even think of it as an option. Now, let's get back to training." They trained for hours, and when Buffy couldn't take it anymore, she sent Willow in to help him practice the spells she had taught him. Buffy went to visit Giles to see what else he may have found in his books. When she was at his door, she knocked and told him it was her. Xander came to the door and opened it for her.  
  
"Hey Buff. What's up? How's the training going?" He asked her as he closed the door behind her.  
  
"I think it's going pretty well. He's losing his focus though and I don't know where it's going. I don't know. For the past two days, he's been a wreck. Maybe its just nerves."  
  
"Buffy, could you come here for a moment?" Giles called her over to the desk where he was looking through books. Buffy came over to Giles and sat in a chair next to him. "Has Spike told you about any weird dreams or anything that he was having?" He asked.  
  
"Well, the other night he woke up and said that it was just a bad dream, but he was in pretty bad shape. It was kinda yucky actually cause he was all sweaty and clammy and." Giles cut her off.  
  
"But did he tell you anything about it?"  
  
"No, just that it was a bad dream. Why is this so important? Everyone has nightmares. Especially when they know they're facing a big bad evil in the next few days." Xander, Andrew, and Giles all paused what they were doing and looked up at her like she was a freak. "What? Don't you guys get nightmares about this stuff? I know I do. Well, sometimes." They all just stared and then went back to what they were doing.  
  
"Well Buffy, it says here that Spike should be having a dream or nightmare or something that foresees part of the battle. It doesn't say what aspect of the battle, like who wins, who the opponent is, or anything, but it does say that it should tell him something."  
  
"Hmmm. I guess I can try to get it out of him and then I'll let you know whatever he says he saw."  
  
"Ok, find out soon Buffy. This could help Spike win." Buffy left Giles's room and went back to Willow's where Spike was training.  
  
"Hey Will?" She asked her friend.  
  
"Yea Buffy?" Willow replied.  
  
"Can I talk to Spike for a minute? Alone?"  
  
"Oh yea, sure Buffy. I'll be right outside if you need me. Let me know when you're done so we can get back to work on our spells."  
  
"Sure. I just need a few minutes." Willow left the room and Buffy was left with Spike.  
  
"What's the matter love?" He asked her.  
  
"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering, about that nightmare you said that you had the other night. What was it about?" Spike flinched at having to see the entire thing all over again in his head.  
  
"What nightmare?" He tried to play it off like it was no big deal. Buffy looked at him in a way that he knew she knew he was lying. "Oh, that nightmare! It was nothing." He lied. "I was just being attacked by a bloody load of bunnies. That's all. I just didn't want to tell you because I thought you'd think it was unmanly to be afraid of bunnies." Buffy wasn't sure that he was telling the truth, but she had to trust him.  
  
"Ok Spike. I believe you. But if you're lying to me.." She said back to him threateningly. She then went back to Giles and told him what Spike told her.  
  
"Odd. I don't think that was the dream that foresaw the battle. Either he's lying or he hasn't had it yet." Giles said to her. "Bunnies haven't been known as demons." Xander heard this and almost broke into tears. It was the first thing that had reminded him of Anya since she was killed in Sunnydale. It hadn't impacted on him yet that she was gone forever.  
  
"Anya used to be terrified of bunnies." He laughed as tears came pouring from his remaining eye. "If anyone thought they were demons, she was the girl." He smiled thinking of his memories he had of their relationship. 


End file.
